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Deeper Perception Made Practical

How Aura Reading Can Help You with the SOCIAL Aspect of Personal Presence

Having a strong presence in your human life can be about more than energy

Our conversation is coming along so productively. Thanks to all who have been commenting at our first article in this series about personal presence. Today let’s start to distinguish two separate things that are often confused when we yearn for a stronger, better presence:

The energy aspect

And the social aspect

Because man oh man, are they different! Yet it’s so human that, in our pain, in our longings, these two disparate aspects are often confused. Leading to problems. Sometimes big problems.

To set the stage, here’s a story that is (to me) hilarious. (But only in retrospect.)

Fashion Advice from an Unlikely Source

The year was 1974. The place? A hotel in Switzerland. Rooms were being rented out to teachers of the Transcendental Meditation Program.

A group of us initiators had flown in from America. Once arrived at the hotel, we learned that our guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, happened to be in the lecture hall. If we wished, we could see him.

Nobody else was there. (Note: This was a unique experience for me, out of all my Teacher Training Courses and so many Advanced Training courses. Of course, all that follows is described to the best of my recollection.)

Eagerly my TM buddies and I ran over to the stage where, as usual, Maharishi was sitting on his deerskin. Usually a pathetically slow runner, I got there first. No doubt, love for my master gave wings to my legs….

A minute of face time one-on-one with my guru! Such a rare treasure! And I’d been working so hard as Co-Chairman of the TM center in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts. Yes, I stood in his glorious presence, maybe a foot away.

Describing this to you, Blog-Buddies, I can still hear his voice — exactly the way he said each word, framing it in golden silence. I felt so loved, so special, so very grateful.

After the next pause, radiant with golden silence, Maharishi added:

“But you should dress better. Your clothing should be tip top. And wear clothes that fit.”

Then my guru turned away to give attention to the next in line.

What’s So Funny about That?

By now, at age 68, I’m a girly girl. For the past 15 years I have actually come to like clothes. And by the time I turned 60, I have even been able to notice whether or not clothing actually fits a person’s body. (Better late than never, right?)

Back in the day, I was 26 years old. According to conventional standards, I was at the height of my cuteness.

You and I can only imagine how atrocious my clothes and general grooming must have been in order for Maharishi to chide me in this way.

So, who was the man who was bestowing this fashion advice? A plump man in his late fifties, a fellow who displayed to the world a flowing white beard while hiding a long ponytail that he tucked into the back of his dhoti.

Yes, this fashion advice came from a man who wore a one-piece white garment.

Incidentally, several years later Maharishi helped to design a line of women’s clothing for his “Initiators” and “Governors of the Age of Enlightenment.” Clothing that was meant to be appropriately royal and dignified. All of us were encouraged to buy these “Siddha dresses.”

Unfortunately I have not been able to find a photo on the Internet, so let me describe what these were like: Very colorful fabric, like a sort of gift wrap imported from India. Made of silk. Extremely modest in cut; boxy, not sexy or attractive — apart from clearly looking expensive; sporting broad pleats that would wrinkle easily and would often have to be professionally cleaned and pressed.

Sure, Siddha dresses might be bought in a size that fit… yet you have never seen dresses that were more unflattering for every possible variation of a woman’s body.

Yes, I was solemnly offered fashion advice from this sartorial expert!

Even Maharishi Knew that Social Presence Usually Counts for More than Energetic Presence

And back in the day, I confused the two. By now, the categories are clear.

Have you, too, sometimes ignored the social presence factor — a.k.a. objective reality — in how you are treated?

Did you think, “It’s all about having charisma.” or “If only my spiritual presence were strong enough, everyone would respect me”?

Have you been so busy reading auras, or energy, that you have overlooked paying attention to human-level vibrational frequencies — good old objective reality?

About that last question, one great benefit of developing aura reading skills is this. With Stage THREE Energetic Literacy, you’re not drifting along noticing energies all day long. Or off-and-on. (All this being the mark of Stage ONE Energetic Literacy, which could be defined as plenty of talent. Zero skills. Like me, back at age 26.)

With Stage Three Energetic Literacy, you use your good aura reading skills when you choose to consciously learn information. It’s Technique Time, not random moments. And therefore you are much more likely to pay attention to objective reality, including whether you really want to wear the equivalent of a Siddha dress.

Even if you can find one — and it fits you, tip top — that’s still not likely to win you many points in objective reality. 😉

Beyond That, More

It’s very common for spiritually-oriented people — even folks in human-based spirituality (or even Enlightenment) to not be as clear as they might be about distinguishing objective reality from subjective reality, and solving problems at human vibrational frequencies.

In my next blog post of this series, I’ll be commenting a bit about that.

But for now, I can’t wait to read your responses to the four questions listed above. Plus whatever you have to say on this sorting-out topic concerning strong personal presence.

I don’t necessarily think consciously about it, but every time I pick out clothes to wear, I’m taking into consideration what kind of person I want to be seen as by the people who will see me wherever I’m going.

There’s an interesting TED talk about body language by Amy Cuddy; a study showed that “hero poses” (strong poses that superheroes are often depicted in, such as standing with feet spread and hands on hips) actually make the person posing that way act more worthy of respect. I found it interesting that the pose works on both the viewer and the poser.

When I got back from France with my tailored 3-piece French suit, I was surprised how differently I was treated by people on the street, in shops, etc.

An appearance of success and flair made a surprising difference.

(it should be noted, a 70’s French suit had a very different look than an American one. Lapel points that came up to the shoulders, snug from the waist to the knees, then large bell bottoms. Add silk tie and pocket watch chain with sapphire stone…)

5. Wear clothes and accessories that, whatever style they may be, are clean, comfortable, in good repair, and express your respect for yourself as you present yourself to the others you would expect / aim to interact with during your day.

While standing in lines at places such as the grocery store or the airport, it so often occurs to me that most people are terribly uncomfortable in their bodies and their strategy is to do their best to ignore and hide them.

And it doesn’t help that they are addicted to junk and spend all day staring at screens of some sort.

It seems to me that as humans we walk a path along the abyss of many, many addictions.

PS Many older people who are suffering from even mild cognitive decline have trouble keeping themselves socially presentable– issues of hygiene but also choice of clothing– and, alas, they are treated accordingly.

It seems to me that in our culture, as one gets older, one becomes more vulnerable, and so it becomes increasingly vital, even part of self-defense, to present well.

There are a lot of vultures out there. They look for people who look careless, which is to say, clueless.

That probably sounds very vague – so what I mean is, as much as I love great designs, fashion, colours, textures and fabrics – if I love it, it fits, and feels okay (and matches the weather okay, i.e. jumpers in winter, wellies in rain, t-shirts in summer) … then I pretty much go for it.. ..(in theory, maybe in practice its nothing like that!!!) 🙂 .

As for Comment #30, this could be taken as a great justification for not noticing objective reality and which clothing choices are appropriate for a particular real-life, social situation.

Personally, I’d place more trust in the advice in the “it fits” part of Comment #28 and all of Comment #17. (My guess is that ALAN already does this, and this has become such a habit, he didn’t mention it. :-))

Haha I knew I’d get wrecked for comment #30. But you’re right ALAN does do this (re: comment #37) TO me, noticing objective reality is trusting my gut. Knowing something fits is felt in my gut. Dressing for a social situation is based on my gut feeling.

Popularity of places is a curious thing. There was a restaurant in my neighborhood that always had lineups. Very gradually, that faded. I went in and found the food just OK. 50’s style diner but there’s a few of those around.

About your Comment #61, you wrote, “Respecting myself and others and being comfortable and engaging socially.
But not to the degree….”

Not sure I understand what you meant here. Surely you weren’t trying to suggest that a person who is really comfy with others, or has mastered engaging socially, is an expert at acting like a phony (but doing this convincingly)!

Also knew I had to speak up and tell the interview committee who I was along with my experience and knowledge, not just “unskilledly” merge with them and hope they could mind-read how great I would be.

Recently, I bought an expensive dress to continue to free up this part of myself, and also am intentionally dressing more nicely when I go out as part of my personal growth in this area; and, this, for myself, not for other people — which I always begrudged.

This discussion, and the whole blog, for that matter, has really confirmed for me this trajectory in my life.

Thank you, Rose, for talking about things that seemed like “no-brainers” for the non-empaths among us, but for us, are incredibly necessary to balance out our predisposition to go deep and shun the “shallow”.

What I meant about “to the degree” is that at some point of thinking about my presentation and outfits and whatnot, I suppose I’d cross into overthinking it and maybe even further into almost being manipulative.

I was once mistakenly assumed to be a police officer by hospital staff.

I was in the waiting room while a riding buddy was treated for his (minor) motorcycle accident. It was summertime, and I was dressed in in my biker gear: boots, black riding pants and a thickly padded jacket with big shoulders.

Some of this comes from the gear I’m wearing – it’s hard to pull your arms in tight when your elbow pads hold your arms in a bit of a curve. And my shoulders look confident with that padding, no matter what they’re doing inside my jacket.

Some of the change comes from what I had been doing in the hours previous – out with the fresh air whipping by my face as I zipped along a mountain highway at dusk.

Plus the knowledge that there are far fewer women who ride shifted my attitude some as well.

Talking perfectly so other people are attracted to your way of being. Going along with social norms. Basically using judgement or perception to say how slow fast someone is talking, how jolly or how well they are dressed.

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